Tag Archives: VC Crew

The “Jailspot” is the name given by graffiti writers and urban explorers to two contiguous abandoned buildings on Henri-Bourassa at the level of the now closed Tanguay prison. These buildings were not actually part of the closed prison, they belonged to Transport Québec who once used them as hangars for heavy machinery. They appear to have been used in the recent past as offices and warehouse space. The westernmost of the two is older than the other one which seems to have been built around 2006-2007. For the following years the latter new construction was used for sporadic warehouse sales.

Business must not have been very good, the buildings were left unused as early as 2011-2012 and signs of graffiti action started appearing, first outside, then inside. Within a few years the two buildings were completely taken over by explorers and writers/artists. Everything except the warehouse at the front of the easternmost building quickly deteriorated, through the combined actions of vandals and rain/snow through broken doors and windows as well as collapsed roofs. The two buildings were finally gradually demolished over the spring and summer of 2016.

If you have any additional information about this spot, feel free to write in and contribute to this article.

The gallery below is divided by rooms and other areas where artists left their mark. The names of the rooms are not official ones, I just came up with them for comprehensive purposes. A plan of the spot can be seen below, at the top of the gallery.

This post features photos of graffiti pieces created around Montreal during January 2016 and that I was lucky enough to find. Even though winter has been gentle during January, writers were more active indoors than outdoors so the majority of pieces shown here were found in abandoned places about to get demolished. If you want to see new works as soon as I photograph them, you can follow me on Instagram.

This image gallery brings together 100 great pieces of Montreal graffiti from 2015. It is not necessarily the best of the year because taste is a subjective thing and I was obviously not able to photograph everything. The selection was done partly from my own personal favourites but mostly from those of my followers on Instagram. Of course this list was put together from what I was actually able to photograph, so keep in mind that it may lack some great work that just slipped between the cracks.

The pieces are shown here in alphabetical order of artist/crew name. To ensure that the list wasn’t filled with only work from a few popular writers, I have set a maximum of 4 pieces per artist. Collaborations by two or more artists under one common theme count as one entry.

EK Sept deconstructed at the limit of abstraction, but still in complete control of the space being used; from the abandoned Transco.

Ekes piece in the abandoned Transco

Lyfer piece in the abandoned Transco

Above two: Ekes (top) and Lyfer (bottom) shining out of a dark basement in the abandoned Transco. This pair counts as one entry. There is more Ekes and Lyfer below under ‘Lyfer’ and more Lyfer above with Acek.

It was difficult to narrow down Skor‘s impressive input in 2015 to the four ones making this list. It was a nobrainer however when it came to the one above from the abandoned “Jailspot”, it had to make the list.

Here’s a photo gallery of the new street art having appeared on the streets of Montreal during the month of November 2015. The post is split into sections covering murals and other painted pieces, wheatpastes, stickers, and ‘other’. For the graffiti done in Montreal during the same period, see this recent article. If you want to see new Montreal street art and graffiti as soon as I photograph it, you can follow me on Instagram.